


Galatea

by electric016



Category: Zero Escape (Video Games), Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward - Fandom
Genre: Drabble, Pre-VLR, Spoilers, Unrequited Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-10
Updated: 2015-01-10
Packaged: 2018-03-06 22:33:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3150758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/electric016/pseuds/electric016
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>“Luna, do you ever think about death?” It was a question brought to his lips by scientific curiosity.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Galatea

Sometimes Luna would help Dr. Klim with his research. It was helpful to have an extra set of hands and Luna didn’t mind working in silence. But sometimes he would look over at her and remember her from a different time, one that both had and hadn’t happened to him. He remembered her in the garden when she’d cried into his chest, and he’d held her while she died.

“Luna, do you ever think about death?” It was a question brought to his lips by scientific curiosity.

She looked taken aback for a moment, but then responded, “Sometimes.”

“Your own death?”

“Sometimes,” she said again, “But I try not to.”

“Why?”

She looked thoughtful. “Well, I know what’s going to happen to me when I die. Or, I don’t know if it’s really death with a robot, but I’ll cease to exist. I won’t have memories or thoughts; I won’t be able to communicate with anyone. It will be like it was before I was created.”

“You don’t think that’s the same for humans?”

She smiled sadly at him. “I don’t know what happens to humans when they die. It’s quite possible that it is the same. But you don’t seem to think so.”

“I don’t?” He sounded dubious.

“Well, maybe not you specifically, but you as in humanity. You have so many different ideas and theories. So many stories about what happens after you die. They’re all fascinating. And there’s no way to know for sure that one of them isn’t true.”

“They’re probably not true, Luna.”

She frowned at him. “Maybe not.” She was quiet for a moment before she said, “I guess human death appeals to me.”

“Humans dying?” he said in bewilderment.

“What? No! No! No! I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.” She said flustered. “I meant for myself. I think I’d like to be able to have a human death.”

“How so?”

She was quiet for a moment. Dr. Klim watched her processing her thoughts.

“Well,” she began, “in a lot of stories, humans waste an awful lot of time looking for immortality or eternal youth. In a lot of ways I already have both of those. So long as I’m well maintained I can’t die from anything like sickness. And even if my body were to malfunction, my consciousness can easily be transferred to another one. My body doesn’t age. So long as I keep this one, this is what I’ll look like. Gaulems don’t have lifespans. We don’t grow old. Eventually someone will have to decide when my life is over. That or I’ll have to wait for the main computer to become corrupted. However, once my consciousness is deleted that’s it. I’ll cease to be. Robots don’t have an afterlife.

“But for humans it’s different. You’re all very fragile. Your lives can be snuffed out so easily. You’re heading for very definite expiration dates. And yet you  _don’t_  know what happens to you when you die. I think it makes you incredible creatures.” She shook her head. “Maybe I don’t have the right perspective, but I think I’d rather have humanity and the unknown, than immortality the absolute truth.”

“I see.” Dr. Klim said, then sighed, turning back to his research notes. Sometimes he worried he’d made her too human. The image came to his mind of Pinocchio: a little boy made from wood who longed to be real.

A different story however came to Luna’s mind. As she often did, she thought of Pygmalion and Galatea. In the story Pygmalion creates a sculpture of a beautiful woman and falls deeply in love with it. When the goddess Aphrodite witnesses his love, she is moved and transforms the stone into a real woman, Galatea.

Luna often thought about that story and fantasized about her own creator’s love transforming her. But of course, that could never happen. And that was okay, really.

It was a nice fantasy, though.

And while the thought of her own death scared her, she knew she wouldn’t have to worry about that any time soon. Stone lasted for a very long time.


End file.
